Journey of an SIBM Pune aspirant!

Not a single discussion about management education in India ends, without discussing about IIM’s. This is the pinnacle which fuels our hopes and dreams ever since the time we decide to pursue management education. But the fact of the matter is IIM’s do not have the capacity to accommodate everyone, who wishes to pursue MBA. For the rest of us, who do not get the opportunity to enter those hallowed portals, it comes down to the rest of the management institutes in our country.

Be it through the various management entrance examinations around us today, like CAT/ XAT/IIFT/MAT/ATMA or the various state level entrances, all that we try to do is find our place to pursue those dreams. Dream which keep us awake all the time. As someone once said, “Dreams aren’t those which you have while you sleep, it are those which keep you up at nights and try to pursue them.”

Symbiosis International University conducts entrances into its various post-graduate management institutes through an examination called SNAP. Usually taken by nearly 80,000 aspirants every year, it is possibly one of the biggest entrance exams around, after CAT. With multiple centres across most of the major cities in the country, it is a huge affair on the 3rd Sunday of December every year.

But this is the initial part. The real test starts after that. The results are usually announced during the 2nd week of January. The critical moment that can make or break their dreams is serious matter. Joy or Despair/ Smile or Frown/ Jubilation or Heartbreak, SNAP results ensure that the above-said emotions happen all across the country. Some exceed their expected score while some fall short. The result for SNAP test is not the end of it, as most would think. The individual institutes release their cut-offs shortly after, thereby inviting aspirants for the next round of admissions process.

The wait between the declaration of SNAP results and the institute cut-offs is the most strenuous for any aspirant. This is where most aspirants get tensed and vulnerable. With advises/advisors available online like dust particles on a village road, the aspirants fall prey to gossip and chit-chat and get glued to them like leeches. Everyone has opinions about everything in life and none better to impose these opinions upon than vulnerable aspirants who await their final results.

When the results are declared some aspirants suffer from the syndrome “so-near-yet-so-far”. It is a very common syndrome now-a-days with limited quality education seats and a huge pool of talented aspirants. But that is life right? It’s what happens to you when you plan for something else. With GD/PI merit lists declared, the aspirants enter the last and by far the hardest leg of preparation for admissions. By personal opinion, taking a test is like taking a stroll on the beach as compared to this part of admissions process.

Then the rushes to coaching institutes start taking place. People, whose idea of reading would be the occasional comic section in the Sunday magazine, start reading the newspaper daily. Some try to cook up answers explaining as to why the institutes might consider them as the perfect candidate even though grades are disastrous and extra-curricular activities are few and far between. This is the time where the grey matter of each individual starts getting used after a long hiatus. After all, this is what we imagine our lives to be when we start dreaming. The destination is so important that the journey is just another excuse to keep ourselves preoccupied and not spook it all away.

Harshika Singh

Gaurav Chopra

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SIBM, since its inception in 1978 has been following a tradition: the tradition of producing world class leaders. This tradition has been made possible by adopting various programmes which suit the existing business conditions.